Solidarity: Me, Myself, and I (A Twilight Sparkle Tale)

Twilight followed behind the old colt, looking around the eerie setting in which she had traversed so many times before. Normally the Everfree Forest didn't bother her so much, even at night. This night, however, the darkness seemed to be even thicker than before. It was as if she had a piece of black cloth over her eyes making everything seem fuzzy and distant, even though most of it was right in front of her. As a result, she often times bumped into a tree or stubbed her hoof on a rock. She started to fall behind from the old one, and she hurried her pace, immediately stumbling on top of a log. Twilight groaned in frustration. She didn't normally need to use magic to see her way through the forest, but apparently tonight was an exception.

She illuminated the immediate area around her, casting a vibrant lavender light from the tip of her horn. It made a pleasant twinkling sound, like that of a wind chime on a warm summer day, but slightly higher pitched to match the sounds of a humming bird's rapidly flapping wings. Immediately, the area around her lit up into a lavender hue, giving her better sight. This was short lived, as a large amount of spiders fell from the trees above her, writhing in some strange manner of either pain or pleasure. Many began making dancing movements similar to what Nansi had done earlier, but some started to become aggressive to their brethren and began fighting one another. Twilight gaped on in confusion, as she had never seen spiders act like this before as a result of indirect magic.

Nansi Quilt Czar looked up in confusion, then turned around in frustration. He picked up a glob of mud from a nearby puddle, then threw it at Twilight's head, making her stumble over. She lost focus of her magic, darkening the area once more and silencing her magic. The spiders immediately stopped moving, then proceeded to climb up the trees and vanish once more.

Twilight shook her head, getting off most of the mud. Angrily, she said "What was that for?! Why did you throw mud at me?!"

The old colt looked down on the young alicorn, annoyance on his brow. "Your magic was interfering with my chanting. The spiders got confused and started acting wildly, so I had to stop your magic before they ended up either killing each other or having an orgy on your body." This response made Twilight gag. "You're welcome." He said.

Twilight stood up, grunting. "What does me casting my magic have to do with your spiders? It was just a simple illumination spell."

"That spell you cast, while harmless to everything else, casts its own frequency. The spiders reacted to that frequency and became confused. Many of them heard a command to start mating, while others heard the command to kill. The frequencies are surprisingly similar, strangely enough."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Frequencies? You mean like sound frequencies?" Learning about sound frequencies wasn't exactly what Twilight had planned on studying, but any opportunity to broaden her knowledge couldn't hurt.

Nansi nodded. "Exactly. Spiders don't have ears, as you can imagine. They have special sensory organs in their bodies that allow them to 'hear' things we mammals miss all the time. They can determine the origin of the sound based on what they hear, but magic is still very foreign to them. Well, at least the modern type of magic used in the world today." He turned around again, looking at a nearby stick lying on the ground. He then started chanting a quick chant, and spiders came down and started to work on the branch. By the time they finished, it looked like an average torch. He then pulled a flint and tinder from his saddlebags, and lit the torch. The area was immediately doused in an orange light, providing better vision for Twilight. They continued onward as Nansi spoke.

"In my homeland," he explained through the torch in his mouth, "we do not have unicorns, and pegasi very rarely venture out to our part of the world. My land is filled with Earth Ponies, or Aard Kinders, as we call ourselves. In your language this translates to Earth Children." They continued on the path, eventually coming to a small clearing. Nansi stopped and placed his saddle bags and torch on the ground, then chanted a few quick syllables. Spiders came from around them carrying sticks, leaves and other foliage of the surrounding area. Other larger spiders carried rocks, placing them in a circle between Twilight and Nansi, whilst the smaller ones placed everything else in the center.

Throwing the torch into the center, a small fire was started, and Nansi sat on the ground. Not wanting to be rude, Twilight followed suit. She knew she had to take notes on this particular subject, as she had had no dealings with any representatives from Zecora or Nansi's homeland. She used her magic to get a quill and parchment from her saddlebags, noticing that there were no spiders in sight. Hopefully, they wouldn't be bothered by her use of a simple levitation spell.

Nansi began to speak, and she began to write. According to Nansi and his people's mythology, the ponies of his land were one of the first Earth Ponies to exist on the planet. They supposedly had dealings with beings of higher power than that of Princess Celestia, and some even prayed to gods that Twilight had never heard of before. He also went into an explanation as to how some Earth Ponies seemed to have better understanding of the earth and all things from it than others. He explained that it was a sort of spiritual connection that all living things share and that with the right guidance and understanding, one could even communicate to plant life and have it act on its own accord, or even command the mountains to crumble. Twilight had performed magic similar to this before, but she had never considered the fact that the plants had feelings or thoughts. She felt a pang of regret, wondering if the plants saw her as some sort of monstrous beast who forced them to do her will.

After a short time, Twilight felt a strange sense of unease. She raised her head from her piles of papers to look around, scanning the area. Nansi stopped his explanation. "What is wrong, Twilight? Do you sense something?"

She nodded curtly. "Yeah. I think somepony's watching us. They're hiding in the forest."

Nansi chuckled slightly. "Yes, that is my niece. I forgot to mention something that maybe I should have told you before we came here."

Twilight, confused, asked. "What would that be?"

At that the end of that sentence Twilight heard a faint whooshing sound in the distance, like something small was flying toward them from behind. She instinctively ducked, just barely escaping the dart that zipped over her head and flew towards the colt. He dodged with an almost lazy sway, acting like he had not a care in the world. He was even still smiling as he said, "Well, Zecora doesn't exactly see me as her 'favorite uncle.' You might say she sees me as a criminal."

Zecora entered the clearing, with what looked to be strange bangles attached to her front hooves. At first they looked normal, but upon further inspection Twilight saw that they actually had hooked blades coming from the front of them, like claws of a large Manticore. She was also wearing a mask on her face, strangely grotesque and with fanged teeth. Small spikes jutted out from the side of the mask, and circlets adorned the ears of it. It was horrifying, but also intriguing in a way.

The zebra charged the campsite, her clawed weapons looking more and more threatening as she got closer. Zecora leapt into the air and landed next to Nansi, then began her assault. She, to Twilight's surprise, stood on her hind legs and starting punching at Nansi. The colt ducked and dodged, moving backwards and around the campsite. The way they moved looked more like some kind of bizarre, angry dance than combat. Zecora swung at Nansi with her right hoof, but missed as he ducked once more. While her front foreleg was extended he tackled her to the ground, head-butting her mask square on its muzzle. The circlets of the mask jingled like bells, and the mask cracked slightly under the attack. The old colt was powerful despite his appearance. He then wrapped his front foreleg around Zecora's neck, holding her on the ground while she struggled to move.

Twilight overcame her shock from the initial assault and used a levitation spell to separate the two ponies. Zecora struggled against the force of the magic, and Nansi looked squarely onto Twilight's face with a look of annoyance. Twilight felt a heavy weight on her back, and felt a painful pinch on her neck. She was paralyzed, falling to the ground in a limp heap from the spider bite. She immediately started sweating, and her stomach was doing backflips more than Pinkie on a sugar rush while drinking coffee. Her vision blurred, and the last thing she saw were the two Earth Ponies ducking, dodging, swinging, and even biting. Then her vision become completely black as she went unconscious.

***

Twilight was in a long corridor, seemingly endless. She urged herself to move forward, despite the pain she felt in her neck every time she took a step. The pain seemed to pulse along with her rhythm, like a drum so powerful that the sound of its' beat literally harms the body.

She continued forward, and eventually came across a series of mirrors. They were all slightly cracked and dusty, displaying their age and misuse. They did not, however, reflect her image. After the first hundred or so she encountered even more mirrors, these ones clean and undamaged. The first few showed her as she looked normally, but she noticed one key factor in each of them: not a single one of these reflections showed her as an Alicorn.

She started running, trying to see if any of these would show her her true face. The images started to stare at her in disgust, as though she was some sort of disgusting abomination. The images themselves started to become more and more bizarre, as the mirrors showed different varieties of Twilight Sparkle: Tall, short, fat, skinny, one eye, twenty eyes, ten legs, one leg, two horns, horns emerging from her back, extra tails, large teeth, etc.

She started to hear something, and it filled her with complete dread. The images started to speak in her voice, but they were all so distorted and bizarre that they were nearly unintelligible. They were all saying the same thing in rhythm, matching the throbbing pain in her neck in their percussive assault.

ABOMINATION. ABOMINATION. ABOMINATION.

Then came the running.

A thunderous sound of a stampede was behind her, and Twilight turned her head around. Hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of Twilight's started running at her, all the while still screaming their horrifying chant. She looked forward, panting and sweating furiously, hooves and legs feeling like they could fall apart at any second. She tried casting a spell at the other Twilight's but she couldn't focus past her own terror and exhaustion.

She tripped over something and started falling to the ground, but in slow motion. She eventually stopped moving, completely suspended in the air like a marionette. She was too tired to resist, too scared to think clearly. The other monstrous Twilight's came up from behind, and even more from in front of her. Their sick, demented chanting became too much for her, and her vision started to fade once more as tears streaked from her eyes.

One of the Twilight's walked forward, a bizarre tool in it's mouth. It looked like a vice used in a carpenters workshop, but the insides of the vice had rusty blades emerging from them. The doppelganger looked into Twilight's eyes, and her focus came back immediately. This one had a key feature to it, which the other monsters didn't even seem to realize. This Twilight's eyes were as blue as the ocean on a moonlit night. They had a warmth to them, a familiar warmth Twilight knew all too well. The clone dropped the tool, and the others immediately realized their fate as she lifted her head to speak.

BEGONE, VILE BEASTS. PLAGUE NOT THE MIND OF YOUR PRINCESS, LEST YOU FACE THE WRATH OF THE RULER OF THE NIGHT.

The monstrous Twilight's scattered back into the mirrors in fear, their portals shattering behind them. Luna dropped her guise and Twilight fell to the ground in a heap of relief, though still in immense pain. One clone remained, however, standing vigilant despite the warning given by Luna. The copy started to melt into a black sludge, then reconvene as a mass of eyeballs and appendages, with a solitary green eye in it's center.

Impressive, young one. Frightening such beasts en masse is no easy feat. You must wield much authority to command such lowly things.

Twilight struggled to stand, Luna standing guard in front of her. "Be silent with your pleasantries, creature." Luna said with obvious disgust. "Flattery is a tool used by the weak to entice their betters. Such tricks shan't work on me."

I meant no disrespect, truly. I only dispense such words to those who truly deserve it.

Luna scoffed, obviously not taking the bait. The eye spoke again.

I wish to speak with the young one, my lady. She and I have some business to discuss.

Luna looked at Twilight. "Do you truly have business with this thing? Or is he speaking flasehoods?"

Twilight gasped between breaths, "I don't even know what it is. It saved me from a nightmare, then told me to look for something called the Solitary Star."

Luna turned back to the mass of writhing black flesh. "Twilight Sparkle is under my protection. If you wish to speak to her, then you must speak to me as well."

I speak only to the young one. The knowledge I impart is meant for her ears alone.

"Then your business with her is concluded." Luna waved her horn towards the eye, sending a wave of magic towards it. The magic passed through it, doing absolutely nothing. The eye blinked and started to chuckle, then grew to a hearty, dark laugh.

"Twilight, you must go, now!" The hallway behind Twilight seemed to shrink, as a door became more and more into view. It opened to reveal a completely white space, illuminating the room in a nearly blinding light. Twilight staggered to stand up, and turned to the Princess.

"What about you?" she said. "I can't just leave you alone with it! I want to help!"

Luna turned and lifted Twilight into the air with her magic. She threw her though the doorway as she saw green flames surround the princess. She heard the eye yell in frustration as the door was slammed shut behind her. The minute it was closed though, her vision went black once more.